Political Science 2231E Final: IR notes for last exam.docx

• School: Western University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: Political Science 2231E
• Professor: Rado Dimitrov

Document Summary

It would be an error to assume that international decisions and behaviours are influenced solely by the choices of global leaders. Leaders of all groups are constrained by various pressures and circumstances that restrict free choices. No single category of causation can fully explain foreign policy decisions; rather, a number of influences converge to codetermine the decisions that produce foreign policy. U. s presidential advisor joseph a. califano: a president is a prisoner of historical forces that will demand his attention whatever his preference in policy objectives. Three major sets of causal variables: 1. Global conditions that prevail at the time of decisions. Global conditions provide constraints and opportunities for international decision making and color the degree to which both an actor"s internal attributes and individual leader preferences can account for the choices made. The prevailing global circumstances define the decisional situation, provoking the need to make decisions and restricting policy options available to the actor.